Meigs again proves a lifesaver

Plane in trouble lands at ex-airport

By John McCormickTribune staff reporterPublished July 28, 2003,Chicago
Tribune

For the second time in slightly more than two weeks,
an aircraft made an emergency landing Sunday at the now-closed Meigs Field,
prompting renewed complaints from pilots that Mayor Richard Daley's decision to
close the lakeside airport threatens the area's aviation safety.

The single-engine plane, en route to the annual
Oshkosh air show in Wisconsin, landed shortly before noon on a patch of grass
amid the rubble of what was once a runway. There were no injuries or damage to
the plane.

Police said the 1946 Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser
suffered an electrical failure and lost radio contact with air-traffic
controllers while flying along the lake and north of the former airport. The
pilot, who thought he might have been struck by lightning, decided he needed to
land and knew Meigs was nearby.

"We saw him go around and it was
sputtering," said Kitty McDonnell of Aurora, who was at the 12th Street
beach near the Adler Planetarium when she noticed the struggling plane.
"The wings were rocking and we didn't think he was going to make it
around."

Witnesses estimated the plane, which took off
earlier in the day from Jackson, Mich., was only about 20 feet above the roof of
a beach clubhouse as it flew south to land.

"It was like he was running out of gas or
something," said Jena Frisby of Lombard. "We thought he was going to
hit the roof."

The plane's pilot, Richard Randall, 63, of Standish,
Maine, couldn't be reached for comment. Randall's son said his father was flying
with a friend, Dick Green.

Robert Randall said his father flies on an almost
weekly basis during the summer months, often pulling advertising banners behind
his plane over athletic events and county fairs. He said his father is used to
landing on grass because he uses a grass runway in Maine.

The last emergency landing at the former Meigs Field
was on July 12, when a helicopter pilot flying over the lake thought a bird had
struck his chopper.

Steven Whitney, chairman of Friends of Meigs Field,
said he's aware of at least four emergency landings at the former airport since
1995, although he suspects there have been many more.

"It doesn't happen everyday, but it happens
often enough that safety is going to be at risk when it's no longer there,"
Whitney said. "People are taught to fly [within] gliding distance of land,
so there's a lot of air traffic along the shore."

Daley closed Meigs in the middle of the night March
30, citing concerns about terrorists having access to an airport so close to the
city's downtown. He has long wanted a park at the location.

City officials said it's unclear how long this plane
will be stuck on Northerly Island, reminiscent of when one plane remained
stranded for nearly a week after Daley closed the strip and others were stuck
for days.

Dennis Cmunt, an operations inspector for the
Federal Aviation Administration, said it doesn't appear the plane was hit by
lightning. But he said electrical repairs are needed before it can be flown
again.

"He did the correct thing and that is to put
the plane down safely," said Elizabeth Isham Cory, an FAA spokeswoman.

Since Daley's demolition crews carved the runway at
Meigs with Xs, the pilot might have to use an undamaged taxiway for takeoff,
assuming he can win city approval to do so. It's also possible the plane will be
trucked to another airport.

"There is debris, so we want to make sure the
conditions ... are safe for takeoff," said Julian Green, a spokesman for
the Chicago Park District.

Green said the park district, which plans to start
demolition of the rest of the runway within 30 days, has no plans to incorporate
a long stretch of grass--for possible future emergency landings--into the design
of a new lakeside nature preserve and park planned for the island.

Plane in trouble lands safely at Meigs

A small plane in trouble landed at the shuttered airstrip Sunday, startling
lakeside visitors and security. It's the second time this month that an aircraft
has used the former lakefront airport for an emergency landing.

The plane landed amid rubble churned up by Mayor Daley's closure of Meigs
after coming within 20 feet of the beach house roof at 12th Street Beach,
witnesses said.

The two people inside the single-engine Piper aircraft were attempting to fly
to an air show in Oshkosh, Wis., said Chicago police Sgt. Jerry Clancy of the
Summer Mobile Unit.

"They lost radio contact--they weren't sure what happened,'' Clancy
said.

The fliers suspected their alternator failed, he said.

Officials with the Federal Aviation Administration said the plane is
registered to a Maine company and the aircraft had taken off early Sunday from
Jackson, Mich. The pilot told the FAA that he had to make the emergency landing
because of poor weather and electrical problems on board the plane.

Clancy said the pair hit bad weather north of Meigs and decided to turn
around and land.

He said he witnessed "a nice, smooth landing.''

Witnesses said it was obvious the plane was in trouble.

"We saw it wobbling,'' said Joann Caccamo, 29, a production assistant
from Plainfield who was visiting Chicago's lakefront. "He was really
shaky.''

"It was scary,'' she said. "We actually expected to see flames.''

Caccamo and her friends said they first noticed the plane because of the
noises it was making.